For many years, fans of the cult hit TV series Veronica Mars have been clamouring for a movie to continue the series. The script for the movie has been ready since around 2008 as series creator Rob Thomas had been working on the movie since the show was cancelled in 2007. However, the movie has been pushed back due to a lack of funding and support from the studios.

Now, thanks to Kickstarter and the power of crowd funding, it looks like the Veronica Mars movie will become a reality. Thomas took to Kickstarter looking for $2 million to get the movie made and came up with it in under ten hours.

I haven’t actually watched Veronica Mars but fans of the show know what it’s all about. I’m not going to sell you on it. Presumably, if you saw the headline and cheered, you’ve probably already given to the Kickstarter and are counting the days until your T-Shirt arrives in the mail.

And you will be getting your Kickstarter reward. Despite the fact that high pledge thresholds seem to often result in failure for the project, Veronica Mars crossed its fundraising threshold in under ten hours which is believed to be an all-time record for Kickstarter. Now the team behind VM has to figure out what to do with the leftover money above the $2 million target.

What’s interesting is the potential for future use of Kickstarter by a popular brand (outside of the gaming realm) to do something that they couldn’t otherwise get funding for. For example, fans of recently cancelled shows look to Netflix or cable channels to keep a show going. What would happen if Dan Harmon showed up on Kickstarter tomorrow and said, “I’m back in charge of Community. We’re going to make a 13-episode season to wrap up the show. We’ll get everyone back for one final run. I want $5 million to make this happen.” They’d probably double that.

While Kickstarter can clearly be used for the forces of good and fandom, one has to wonder when the slippery slope starts. It’s all well and good that a little film ($2 million isn’t exactly a big budget to produce a movie) is being made about a cult favourite TV show but when do we start getting exploited. Someday, big brands are going to put all of the funding for a big movie or TV series on our shoulders. I wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t Disney trying a Star Wars or Marvel project out on Kickstarter rather than taking on the risk themselves.

For now, we have the return of a reasonably popular TV show in the form of a new movie. So, Joss Whedon, Serenity II: The Search for Wash?

Source: Kickstarter – The Veronica Mars Movie Project